Landlords and Renters to Save on Council Tax Bills
The government recently announced that it would stop requiring tenants of shared dwellings to pay hefty council tax bills by banding individual rooms in shared households individually for council tax reasons. The NRLA projects that this change will save landlords and their tenants up to £1,000 annually.
The Council Tax (Chargeable Dwellings and Liability for Owners) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023 were laid before Parliament on 8 November 2023 and come into force on 1 December 2023
The Regulations state that an HMO must be classified as a single dwelling. Liability to pay the Council tax is confirmed as being with the landlord and it’s therefore advisable for landlords to consider bringing the council tax into the rental payments.
Self-contained flats are excluded from the scope of these regulations as the government considers that such flats should normally have their own council tax band.
For licensed HMO’s, the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) plans to simplify the council tax bands for licensed HMOs by combining multiple bands into a single property assessment.
The VOA has written to Councils requiring information to help with the banding exercise.
This content was exclusively prepared in collaboration with The Lettings Hub by Lisa Etherton of award-winning Woodstock Legal Services.
Woodstock Legal Services are specialists in legal advice and solutions for the Private Rental Sector.
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